? Turk! won't thy mother be in a taking! Well,
she's ready, I don't doubt?"

"I didn't ask her anything about having me; and if you'll let me speak,
I'll tell 'ee what I want to know. I just said, Did she care about me?"

"Piph-ph-ph!"

"And then she said nothing for a quarter of a mile, and then she said she
didn't know. Now, what I want to know is, what was the meaning of that
speech?" The latter words were spoken resolutely, as if he didn't care
for the ridicule of all the fathers in creation.

"The meaning of that speech is," the tranter replied deliberately, "that
the meaning is meant to be rather hid at present. Well, Dick, as an
honest father to thee, I don't pretend to deny what you d'know well
enough; that is, that her father being rather better in the pocket than
we, I should welcome her ready enough if it must be somebody."

"But what d'ye think she really did mean?" said the unsatisfied Dick.

"I'm afeard I am not o' much account in guessing, especially as I was not
there when she said it, and seeing that your mother was the only 'ooman I
ever cam' into such close quarters as that with."

"And what did mother say to you when you asked her?" said Dick musingly.

"I don't see that that will help 'ee."

"The principle is the same."

"Well--ay: what did she say? Let's see. I was oiling my working-day
boots without taking 'em off, and wi' my head hanging down, when she just
brushed on by the garden hatch like a flittering leaf. 'Ann,' I said,
says I, and then,--but, Dick I'm afeard 'twill be no help to thee; for we
were such a rum couple, your mother and I, leastways one half was, that
is myself--and your mother's charms was more in the manner than the
material."

"Never mind! 'Ann,' said you."

"'Ann,' said I, as I was saying . . . 'Ann,' I said to her when I was
oiling my working-day boots wi' my head hanging down, 'Woot hae me?' . .
. What came next I can't quite call up at this distance o' time. Perhaps
your mother would know,--she's got a better memory for her little
triumphs than I. However, the long and the short o' the story is that we
were married somehow, as I found afterwards. 'Twas on White
Tuesday,--Mellstock Club walked the same day, every man two and two, and
a fine day 'twas,--hot as fire,--how the sun did strike down upon my back
going to church! I well can mind what a bath o' sweating I was in, body
and soul! But Fance will ha' thee, Dick--she won't walk with another